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Wednesday 31 March 2010

Hottest European startups of 2010 Q1

Analysis of the TechCrunch Europe Top 100 reveals the startups that have accelerated fastest during the last three months. This is a quick guide to the hottest European startups of Q1 2010, based on YouNoodle's success-prediction algorithm.

Voddler Billed as the Spotify for video, the Swedish company's mission is "to provide high quality home entertainment on-demand". Currently only available in its home country, it's basically a VOD site that will compete with the likes of Hulu and SeeSaw. They claim to have over 400,000 members and streamed 1 million films in January. Their catalogue carries 839 movies, 192 TV series and 143 documentaries. The service is ad-supported, which could lead them into the same difficulty plaguing other video and audio streaming services.

Their TC Europe/YouNoodle score increased a stagerring 92% to 50 points in Q1.

Graze The service allows "British office workers to improve the way they eat at work. They can order tasty food online and get it delivered to their desks." Each box costs from £2.99, including delivery. The company raised £1.4m in funding from Octopus Ventures in July 2009 and has William Reeve (LoveFilm etc) as a non-exec director.

It's score is up 57% to 28.

aka-aki networks Winner of two Webby Awards in 2009, this Berlin-based mobile social networking service "lets users discover and connect with members as they go about their days." The idea is that you can connect with other users who are in proximity to you. An interesting take on location-based services, more real-time than FourSpam or Gowalla. It's totally free, including the iPhone app. The startup has received an undisclosed sum of funding from Creathor Venture.

Up 56% to 31.

Songkick A graduate of Y Combinator, Songkick is the online database of concerts for music enthusiasts. The service allows you to track your favourite artists and venues, keeping you informed of any new gigs that are happening. It can scan your iTunes library to make it quick and easy to load your data. It then has links to ticket vendors, from whom it takes a commission. The company has a total of $4.5m of funding, including $3.5m in Series A from Index Ventures.

Up 44% to 39.

uberVU In these times of social media ROI, uberVU tracks the buzz from all over the Web around a story in near real time. Its service is on a subscription basis, beginning at $30/month for its basic offering. The startup was a winner of Seedcamp 2008 and has secured a further €400,000 from Eden Ventures.

Up 39% to 53.